Can Curbing Car Use Ease Pollution On L.I.?

Drivers navigate near the Long Island Expressway in Queens, N.Y., in 2015. Traffic congestion nationally is greater than ever before, according to a report by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX Inc.

Since then, several local communities want to get commuters off the road and on to the Long Island Rail Road. Multiple projects are in the works to build apartments near train stations, and Seilback says the county’s build-up of housing around railroad stations will help improve air quality.

“We are seeing communities that are starting to relook at our areas and say, ‘Can we make our area look more like Manhattan, not in the sense that we need a big, huge city but that we can walk to where you need to go.’”

The Cornerstone, a 42-unit apartment complex near the Farmingdale train station, is scheduled to open this month. This will make nearly 200 new units within walking distance of the station.

Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Wyandanch have similar projects on the table.

Seilback says taking the train is cleaner than sitting in rush hour traffic.

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According to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2016 report, Suffolk County, Long Island, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, have the highest levels of ozone pollution in their respective states.